Children's Memories of Previous Lives: What They Can Tell Us About Our Own Lives

Part of a new chapter of Esalen’s history, this seminar-style workshop considers the audacious possibility that reincarnation may be an empirically established fact rooted in robust and compelling scientific data.

Numerous young children from across the world have reported memories of past lives. These cases have been a focus of careful study at the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine over the last 60 years. Over 2,000 cases have been investigated, and in many, the child’s memories appear to match the details of an identified deceased person.

Recently, the Washington Post brought this notion into the mainstream with “The children who remember their past lives,” a meaningful contribution to growing public awareness of reincarnation as a legitimate possibility. Child psychiatrist Jim B. Tucker, featured in the article, is the director of the Division of Perceptual Studies and has worked with nearly 150 families while compiling comprehensive records of past-life memories. He worked closely with the division’s founder, Ian Stevenson, who began gathering data in the 1960s. Clinical psychologist Christine McDowell Tucker focuses on grief counseling and mindfulness meditation. Together, Jim and Christine will share the latest findings and lead discussions about the current research and its implications for us all. Esalen founder Michael Murphy will provide the opening lecture.

This seminar will explore scientific, philosophical, and metaphysical questions about life, death, and meaning, including: 

• If these children have reincarnated, does this mean we all have?
• How much of our personalities are shaped by what we bring from our previous lives?
• What do the children’s descriptions of events between lives tell us about the process of moving from one life to the next?
• Can we conceptualize a larger self that experiences lifetimes as different individuals?
• Does this constitute a tipping point in the history of science?
• How can we think about “purpose” in a lifetime?
• How does this phenomenon change our fundamental understanding of reality?

This seminar-style workshop is somewhat new and experimental for Esalen, leaning into our long history as a refuge for people to sort through complexities and find their bearings. It invites our inner reductionists, skeptics, and artful dodgers to rest and allow for new possibilities. This gathering is for those deeply curious about what happens after we die and what it means to fulfill a life’s purpose. It will be both didactic and interactive while exploring meaningful questions and engaging with related meditation exercises.  

Please note: Active channeling, hypnotically prompted age regressions, and other exercises to summon past-life memories will not be included in this seminar.